"Womanizer" is a song by American singer Britney Spears from her sixth studio album, Circus (2008). It was released on September 26, 2008, by Jive Records as the lead single of the album. Produced and written by The Outsyders, the song was re-recorded after a snippet was leaked onto the internet. "Womanizer" is an up-tempo electropop and dance-pop song. Described by Spears as a girl anthem, the song's lyrics recall a womanizing man, while the protagonist of the song makes clear she knows who he really is.
"Womanizer" received critical acclaim with critics mostly praising its hook, melody and empowering lyrics. Critics also observed it as a stand-out track from the album, while some deemed it a comeback single for Spears. It became a major global success, topping the charts in twelve countries, including the United States, and reached the top five in every country it charted in, as well as receiving several certifications from multiple countries. In the United States, "Womanizer" was Spears' first single to reach number one since "...Baby One More Time" in 1999. The song broke the record for the highest jump to number one at a time which was later broken by Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" in 2009. It is also Spears' best-selling digital song in the country, having sold over 3.5 million copies. The song received a nomination for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards, becoming her second nomination in the category.
The music video, directed by Joseph Kahn, was created by Spears as a sequel to the music video of "Toxic". It portrays Spears as a woman who disguises herself in different costumes and follows her boyfriend through his daily activities to expose him in the end. The video also contains interspersed scenes of Spears naked in a steam room, as a response to the attacks she had received over the years about her weight. The video was also nominated for two categories at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, and won for the Best Pop Video.
The song has been covered by a numerous artists from different genres, including Lily Allen, Franz Ferdinand and Girls Aloud. Spears performed "Womanizer" on several television shows including The X Factor and Good Morning America, as well as award shows such as the 2008 Bambi Awards. She has also performed the song at The Circus Starring Britney Spears (2009), the Femme Fatale Tour (2011) and Britney: Piece of Me (2013).
Background The song was written and co-produced by Nikesha Briscoe and Rafael Akinyemi of the production team, the Outsyders. Spears recorded main vocals with Brendan Dakora at Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, California and Bojan "Genius" Dugic at Legacy Studios in New York City. Pro Tools engineering was done by John Hanes, assisted by Tim Roberts.Circus liner notes. Jive Records (2008) On September 19, 2008, a low quality 37 second snippet of the song was posted on the official website of 107.5 The River, a radio station in Lebanon, Tennessee. According to Jive Records, a representative of the label played a rough mix of the song for people at the station, who recorded it and leaked it on the Internet. The snippet was later removed from the website. The song was scheduled to premiere on September 23, 2008, but the release was delayed when Spears went into the studio to re-record some vocals. The new recordings were done with Jim Beanz and Marcella "Ms. Lago" Araica. The song was finally mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia.
Music and lyrics
"Womanizer" is an uptempo electropop and dance-pop song with dark synths that runs through a dance oriented beat. It has been compared to previous Spears' songs such as "Toxic" (2004) and "Ooh Ooh Baby" (2007). It is written in the verse–pre-chorus–chorus form. The track opens with its characteristical sirens.
According to Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times, Spears' "quick-witted" vocals are similar to the style of the Andrews Sisters. It was also noted by Daily News writer Jim Farber that Spears' delivery has a "tone of petulance". After the bridge, Spears sings the chorus one more time and the song ends while the beat drops and Spears sings the "you're a womanizer, baby" hook.
The song is set in a time signature and played in the key of C♯ minor at a tempo of 137 beats per minute. The chord progression in the song is C♯m – F♯m – E – D♯ – D.
Lyrically, the song refers to a womanizing man. It has been suggested that the lyrics address Spears' ex-husband Kevin Federline.
Critical reception
Upon release, "Womanizer" received critical acclaim. Peter Robinson of The Observer gave the song the maximum five stars referring to it as a "comeback single" and as having a "genius hook". He added that the song "[has] been called lazy, largely by misinformed people who also think that Kylie's 'la la la's would have been better with proper words". Popjustice compared it to "Some Girls" by Rachel Stevens and added "[The] track lays a really strong foundation for the realised comeback that didn't quite happen last time and it's hard not to think of it as a late contender for single of the year. [...] It's literally quite good". Myrddin Gwynedd of The New Zealand Herald said "it's got hit written all over it". On the week of November 24, 2008, the Derby Telegraph chose it as single of the week. In the album review, Nekesa Mumbi Moody of The Providence Journal said that along with "Shattered Glass", they were "[two] fun disco tracks".
USA Today writer Steve Jones named it one of the standout tracks of the album and commented that "she seems most at ease when she's playing the teasing tart". Talia Kraines of the BBC commented that Spears needed more songs like "Womanizer", saying "Britney 2.0 needs to be full of wild dancefloor driven moves". Simon Price of The Independent commented the song borrows its electronic sound from Goldfrapp. Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times complimented Spears' delivery and the lyrics, saying the song is "about the kind of girl power that's focused on besting one obnoxious man, is also vintage and contemporary at the same time – more feminism as individualism". Mike Newmark of PopMatters called the song " a meaty, high-voltage shuffler helmed by the Outsyders, who do an admirable job of recreating the chemistry of Spears and Danja on last year's single 'Gimme More'".
Jim Farber of the Daily News said the pre-chorus was the most repetitive in a pop song since the Shaggs's "Gimmie Dat Ding". Jim Abbott of the Orlando Sentinel called it "basically an adult update of her teen-pop tease act". Ian Watson of Dotmusic wrote that Spears sounded "trapped on this single. Not trapped, as in desperate and distraught, but trapped as in literally frozen – like she's been placed into a robot on a production line and she has to sing these words, dance these steps, work it like this, until the spotlight snaps off and the factory's powered down for the night". The song has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Dance Recording on December 2, 2009. Spears had previously won the category in the 2005 ceremony for her single "Toxic". However, it lost to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face".
Commercial performance
In the United States, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number ninety-six on the issue dated October 18, 2008. The following week, the song jumped to number one breaking the records for largest jump to number one and largest jump to any position in the history of the chart, previously held by T.I.'s "Live Your Life" (feat. Rihanna) and Beyoncé and Shakira's "Beautiful Liar", respectively. The record was later broken by Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You". It also garnered first-week download sales of 286,000, the biggest opening-week tally by a female artist since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital downloads in 2003, surpassing the record previously held by Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body". The record was broken on January 27, 2010, by Taylor Swift's "Today Was a Fairytale". "Womanizer" was Spears' first number one single since her debut "...Baby One More Time" in 1999. On the week of January 3, 2009, the song reached number one on the Billboard Pop Songs and number six on Radio Songs. As of July 2009, "Womanizer" was listed at number thirty-nine in the best selling digital songs of all time, with sales over 2,777,600. As of March 2015, "Womanizer" has sold 3.5 million digital downloads in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It is Spears' best-selling digital single in the country.
In Canada, the single topped the Canadian Hot 100 on October 18, 2008, and stayed in the position for five consecutive weeks. "Womanizer" entered the Australian charts on October 13, 2008, at number sixteen. Three weeks later, it peaked at number five. It shipped over 70,000 copies, earning a platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). In New Zealand, the song peaked at number nine on October 27, 2008. The song was certified gold according to the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ), selling over 7,500 copies. The track debuted at number four in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2008, and reached its peak position of number three four weeks later. On January 16, 2009, it was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), with sales over 200,000 copies. According to The Official Charts Company, the song has sold 447,000 copies there. "Womanizer" reached the peak in a number of European countries, including Belgium (Flanders), Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway and Sweden. It also reached the top ten in Austria, Belgium (Wallonia), Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. In addition, the track became Spears' sixth European number-one single. As of May 2020, "Womanizer" has generated over 202 million streams in the US.
Music video
Development
The music video was filmed on September 24 and 25, 2008 in Los Angeles, directed by Joseph Kahn, who previously worked with Spears for the music videos of "Stronger" and "Toxic".
According to Kahn, Spears pitched him her original concept, which included all the main elements used in the final version. Spears thought of the video as a sequel to "Toxic", as seen in her documentary Britney: For the Record, whereas Kahn approached it as "a 2008 answer" to the previous clip. He added that, "'Toxic' was a crystallization of her career at that time, [...] There are elements and moments of that I felt could [have been] improved. ['Womanizer'] is a bit more fashion-forward". About how the concept of the video related to their previous work, Kahn commented that "It's just a great girl fantasy. There are things she's really good at, like having a really natural knack for knowing what girls want. [...] It's a much more mature sound and much more mature lyrics, and she always has the greatest ideas. She's hyper-aware of pop culture".
The costumes and looks for each of the different women were chosen by Spears and Kahn. The scenes in the sauna were suggested by Kahn, as a response to the attacks Spears received over the years about her weight. He stated, "I knew that the whole world would be watching, so I wanted something in there that stated, 'This is Britney, this is why you should respect her'". The set was cleared for two hours, leaving her and Kahn alone shooting the sequence. Kahn also decided to end the video with an image of Spears smiling, because "We just needed to tell everybody she's OK".
A censored version of the music video premiered on October 10, 2008, on ABC's 20/20 at the end of their show. The uncensored version premiered on MTV the same night.
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